The demand for restorative cement products useful in orthopedic and dental treatments has been increasing, in part, as a consequence of lengthening lifespans and a steadily larger pool of candidates for orthopedic and dental treatments. A second factor driving demand is the increasing tendency among individuals to maintain or adopt a more active lifestyle as they age. This trend makes procedures that use restorative cement products more beneficial and more desirable. A third factor driving the demand for restorative cement products is the development of new techniques that use such cement products.
One disorder that can benefit from improvements to restorative cement products is osteoporosis. Osteoporosis is a chronic bone disease in which the amount of bone is decreased and the structural integrity of bone is impaired. Cancellous bone becomes more porous and cortical bone becomes thinner, making it weaker and more likely to fracture under a normal physiological stress. Eventually, even low impact trauma can result in a fracture and start the victim on a path that will compromise quality of life and, in nearly one third of cases, lead to death.
In the United States, 10 million people have osteoporosis and approximately 32 million more people have low bone mass (called osteopenia), placing them at risk for osteoporosis and osteoporotic fractures. 80% of these people are women. By the age of 65, 50% of women will suffer from osteoporosis, which increases to nearly 100% by age 80. A white female has a 33% chance for a vertebral fracture and approximately a 20-25% chance for a hip fracture in her lifetime. The results are devastating; approximately 15% of osteoporotic patients will have fractures yearly. These 1.5 million fractures occur in 300,000 hips, 700,000 hips, 250,000 wrists, and 300,000 other locations, such as the rib and ankle.
Among the most widely used cement products in orthopedic and dental systems are those based on the polymerizable acrylate resin polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA). PMMA has been used extensively in orthopedic and dental applications. More recent applications include the use of PMMA to treat vertebral compression fractures as a result of trauma or osteoporosis.
PMMA cements are typically prepared from two components: a liquid and a powder. The liquid includes methylmethacrylate (MMA) monomers, an accelerator, and/or an inhibitor. The powder includes PMMA microspheres, a polymerization initiator, and/or a radio-opacifier. This system has been in procedures that polymerize the cement in situ, i.e., at the site of injury being treated. For example, PMMA cements have been used in orthopedic implant surgery to bond the implant to bone and to treat vertebral compression fractures using vertebroplasty and Kyphoplasty™.
However, some concern has been expressed that the exothermic polymerization of PMMA in situ can lead to thermal necrosis. For example, it has been reported that previously studied bone cement products produce a maximum rise in temperature ranging from 80° C. to 124° C. Serbetci et al., “Mechanical and Thermal Properties of Hydroxyapatite-Impregnated Bone Cement,” Turk. J. Med. Sci., 30: 543-549 (2000). These temperatures exceed the limits for avoiding thermal tissue damage and, thus, have led to concern regarding the heat generated by bone cement polymerization in situ.
As PMMA has found clinical utility in treating osteoporosis, limitations, in addition to its exotherm, have been observed. PMMA cements have also been used to treat bone damage in patients with osteoporosis. According to the National Osteoporosis Foundation, about 700,000 vertebral fractures occur annually; and approximately 270,000 of these fractures are painful and clinically diagnosed. While most patients are treated non-operatively, those that do not respond to conservative treatment can be left with persistent pain and limited mobility. These patients are potential candidates for vertebroplasty or Kyphoplasty™ procedures: two minimally invasive procedures that use PMMA to treat vertebral compression fractures. However during vertebroplasty or Kyphoplasty™, leakage of liquid from low viscosity PMMA bone cements can result in “soft tissue damage as well as nerve root pain and compression. Other reported complications generally associated with the use of bone cements in the spine include pulmonary embolism, respiratory and cardiac failure, abdominal intrusions/ileus, and death. Each of these types of complications has been reported in conjunction with the use of these products in both vertebroplasty and kyphoplasty procedures.” 2004 FDA Public Health Web Notification “Complications Related to the Use of Bone Cement in Treating Compression Fractures of the Spine” (issued by Laura Alonge, Office of Surveillance and Biometrics).
Additionally, unreacted components of PMMA cements have been identified as a potential source of toxicity in the body. Thus, besides toxicity due to thermal necrosis, studies have suggested that certain PMMA cement products can produce toxicity due to leaching of unconsumed MMA monomers and/or the polymerization activator. Liso et al., “Analysis of the Leaching and Toxicity of New Amine Activators for Curing of Acrylic Bone Cements and Composites”, Biomaterials 18: 15-20 (1997).
The need for new restorative cement products that address the aforementioned concerns is widely recognized in the field.